Thursday, 6 March 2008

PHNOM PENH (Reuters Life!) - Cambodia's violent past has been laid open in the "Killing Fields" war crime trials, but another widespread form of violence here remains hidden: domestic abuse.

While there are no official statistics, activists estimate that one out of every four Cambodian women is the target of abuse within her home. Many are too afraid to seek help or do not know how to, and women's shelters are still a novelty.

Scholars say decades of conflict, including the Khmer Rouge "Killing Fields" in which an estimated 1.7 million people died, have eroded family ties. Cambodians say domestic violence is problem that goes back generations.

"I see that the biggest cause of domestic violence is the seizure of power in the family. The husband has the power and he does not want his wife to complain," said Oung Chanthol, executive director of the Cambodian Women's Crisis Center (CWCC).

Chanthol's organisation runs a shelter for battered women and has been involved in various activities to help women and children since 1997.

"Another cause is our tradition, which says the best way for women to deal with problems is to hide them in their minds. That is why abusive husbands are not afraid to continue violence against their wives," Chanthol added.

In the past, a prospective husband was required to serve his bride-to-be's family for a few years so the parents could make sure he was trustworthy. That custom has all but died out, but most men still move in with their wife and her family.

SCARED BUT SAFE

Cambodian women are traditionally the ones to inherit from the parents. But their status as heirs does not equal power.

Thirty-year-old Huong Him escaped from her house and abusive husband in Takeo province and has been living at the CWCC shelter with her three sons for two months. Too scared to leave the facility for fear that her husband might track her down, Him has been concentrating on learning how to sew.

Other women at the secret shelter learn skills such as cooking and hairdressing so they can support themselves once they leave.

"Now I am happy that I can stay here with my children and stay away from my husband. He cannot beat me anymore," Him said.

Many women do go on to become financially independent after leaving the shelter.

After a year at CWCC, Chap Neun, 35, a former victim of domestic violence who has since divorced her husband, opened a tailoring business in her home on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

The business is only five months old, but Neun has a trickle of orders from neighbours which allows her to support her mother and three children.

"I don't worry anymore about my husband now. I think that I should concentrate on my work to make money to feed my children," she says.

Despite the matrilineal inheritance system, there used to be a preference for sons over daughter in Cambodia, since boys could obtain high ranking positions in the military or government as adults.

Cambodian women are still discriminated against in terms of education, legal protection and careers. But an unprecedented economic boom here has opened new opportunities for women, not only in vegetable markets and other low-skilled jobs but also in offices.

Employees of Asia Pacific-based global travel management company, FCm Travel Solutions, have swapped their business travel expertise for bricks and mortar to build houses for Cambodian families desperately in need of support.

A team of 10 employees from Australia has been 100% hands-on in the completion of one house, and have a further three currently under construction, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

The company's first ever 'Community House Build Team' comprises people from FCm Travel Solutions; its parent company Flight Centre Limited; and its specialist brands Stage and Screen, and Infinity, in Australia.

Each team member has raised a minimum of A$950 for 'Habitat for Humanity', a not-for-profit, housing organisation that builds simple, affordable houses in partnership with low income families.

The project is being undertaken through FCm Australia's innovative 'Volunteer Abroad' program, which offers educational leave each year to combine travels with a volunteer project that benefits a small community.

"This initiative is part of our global 'FCm Community' program and our Corporate Social Responsibility policy, which both aim to deliver tangible, grass-roots support in local communities worldwide," said FCm's global executive general manager, Anthony Grigson."It has been the most amazing and rewarding experience for our people to build homes with their own hands, for families who would not normally have a stable roof over their heads," he added.

On completion of the first house, the team celebrated with the local villagers and had a formal house dedication ceremony. The team also treated 22 local children to a day trip at a water theme park, which was a first-time experience for most of them.

"Our people have been welcomed into the Cambodian community with open arms and have made a hugely positive impact on the lives of those at Samaky 6," Anthony said.

Following the success of the community house build project in Cambodia, FCm Travel Solutions is again partnering with Habitat for Humanity to offer its employees the opportunity to build houses for families in Nepal later this year.

Cambodia is seeking ways to include the illicit trade in oil from the rare M'reah Prov tree into its anti-drug legislation, local media reported Thursday.

"Introducing legislation is crucial to stopping all forms of trade in M'reah Prov oil and would enable us to impose heavy punishments on traffickers," Lou Ramin, general secretary of the National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD), was quoted by the Mekong Times as saying.

He said that Vietnam has reported many hundreds of tons of the oil being smuggled into its country from 2003 to 2006, while Thailand reported that it seized 50 tons of M'reah Prov oil smuggled from Cambodia in 2007.

The Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture's forestry administration said that the country's M'reah Prov trees are mostly found in the provinces of Pursat, Battambang and Koh Kong.

Wong Hoy Yuen, a project coordinator from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, said that M'reah Prov oil is up to 90 percent rich in Safrole oil, which is used as the main precursor in the clandestine manufacture of MDMA, a drug popularly known as "ecstasy".

“Phnom Penh: Mr. Som Sokyee, the Deputy President of the National Sports Training Center, said that his center was seeking to increase the rations and the pocket money for national sportsmen and sportswomen.

“However, some athletes would prefer to eliminate spending of money for collective meals and for accommodation, but to give the money for meals and for accommodation directly to the sportsmen and sportswomen so that they can manage these by themselves.

“Mr. Som Sokyee disagreed with this request for money to help solve their daily living expenses.

The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports had created the National Sports Training Center with the aim at giving sportspeople enough energy to receive training to enhance their sporting skills.

“He added that the rations for each sportsperson is Riel 15,000 per day [approx. US$3.75], and the pocket money for each of them is Riel 120,000 per month [US$30]. This year, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports is negotiating with several ministries to increase the ration from Riel 15,000 to Riel 25,000 [US$6.25], and the pocket money from Riel 120,000 to Riel 150,000 [US$37.50].

“Mr. Hem Thon, the Secretary General of the Khmer Swimming Sport Federation, mentioned also that with strong sportspeople, technical skills and mental skills go together. He added that nowadays, mental stress is a serious problem, because during the season of selecting sportspeople, much money is spent on gasoline to ride motorbikes to get the meals. If there would be an accident riding a motorbike, who will be responsible?

“Mr. Hem Thon expressed his intention to ask the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports to pay the rations for sportspeople directly to them, so that they manage them themselves.

“Mr. Bun Sok, a Secretary of State at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, explained that sportspeople need sufficient calories to train and to improve their sporting skills. Therefore they must get appropriate food, ensuring that they have enough energy for the training. He added, “If we pay the rations to them to manage them by themselves, the money might be spent not only for themselves, but also for their families. Therefore they might not have sufficient food to gain enough strength in order to engage in the training.

“At present, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and the National Sports Training Center prepare appropriate meals for selected national sportspeople for nine months each year.

“Mr. Thong Khun, the President of the Cambodian Olympic Committee, considers the action by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports to be reasonable.

“It should be noted that this year, the National Sports Training Center will select national sportspeople for 20 sports events, including 203 sportsmen and 63 sportswomen. They will be trained by 51 coaches and will be under the supervision of 23 trainers.”

Most of the oddball stories I find coming from Southeast Asia are from Thailand, but Cambodia is a close second, as shown by this bizarre tale of snake marriage in Phnom Penh. The wedding reception feast of live chickens was a nice touch, but sadly, no photos available, so it's the Cambodian snake kid above.

A pair of pythons have been married in Cambodia after the happy couple went on a hunger strike until they were delivered from living in sin, police and local media said on Wednesday.

Python pair "Increasing Fortune Friday," so named because he slithered into Secretary of State for the Defence Ministry Neang Phat's villa on a Friday in January, and his mate, "Lucky Saturday," who joined him a day later, have been joined in holy matrimony, Kien Svay police chief Pha Samet said by telephone.

"I have no details because I was too busy to join the reception, but I can confirm they got married yesterday," said the police chief. A guest estimated the happy couple to each be about 2-metres long.

The secretary was perplexed about why the snakes refused to eat since they arrived at his home, but then spirits appeared to him in a dream and advised that the serpentine lovers wished to comply with Cambodia's controversial 2006 monogamy law, according to Rasmei Kampuchea newspaper.

The law outlaws adultery and extra-marital relationships. "The process of the wedding ran exactly as the wedding of a human couple," the paper quoted Phat as saying - except, perhaps, for the reception buffet of live chickens. After the ceremony, which took place about 12km outside the capital, the pythons almost immediately consented to eat, the paper reported.

BANGKOK, Mar 6 (IPS) - An opportunity to review the balance sheet of the benefits and burdens of regional integration and opening borders lies ahead, at the Third Mekong Summit to be held in Laos at end-March.

The leaders of the six Mekong countries are to gather in Vientiane for the Mar. 30-31 summit to "discuss the progress and chart future directions in GMS (Greater Mekong Subregion) cooperation", according to an announcement by the Asian Development Bank (AsDB), which is facilitating the summit.

This summit among China, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Burma is aimed at helping achieve the vision of "an integrated, harmonious and prosperous subregion", it added. Previous meetings were held in Phnom Penh in 2002 and in Kunming, China in 2005.

While no surprises are expected -- the summit does not even rank highly in the list of the region’s news events --it brings to fore the continuing debate about the brand of development that the Mekong countries are pursuing, as the Bank-facilitated Mekong programme reaches some kind of a midpoint more than 15 years since its launch in 1992.

To proponents of what the Bank calls the ‘Greater Mekong Subregion’ programme, regional cooperation has brought clear economic benefits especially given the fact, as Bank officials like to recall, the governments involved would hardly even sit at the same table in the past.

The early 1990s were a period when ideological and political differences were in thaw. Only in 1991 did China and Vietnam restore bilateral ties, three years after a naval battle near the disputed Spratlys, and start opening more land borders. The Paris Peace Agreement for Cambodia was signed in 1991, leading to the United Nations-sponsored elections three years later.

Economic reforms had come underway some years back. Vietnam launched its ‘doi moi’ or economic renovation policy in 1986, and Laos announced reforms called the ‘New Economic Mechanism’ that year as well.

Today, Bank figures point to increased linkages within the Mekong region. Exports are up more than 400 percent from 1992 to 2006, and intra-regional trade has increased by 15 percent, it says.

They add that from 1990 to 2003, poverty reduction has fallen from 46 percent to 36 percent in Cambodia, from 53 percent to 29 percent in Laos, from 51 percent to less than 10 percent in Vietnam. Some of the Asia’s highest growth rates are in the region, such as Cambodia’s 10 percent.

But to critics of regional integration pushed by the Bank and the Mekong governments, the GMS kind of development has too heavily focused on hard infrastructure projects. They say these are exacting a heavy price in social and environment impacts that the less developed countries are grappling with now.

The Mekong River, which flows through the region, is often cited as an example of this cost. Undammed until the nineties, it is the subject of a mix of hydropower plans by countries like China and Laos. "Death by a thousand cuts" is how Carl Middleton, South-east Asia campaigner for the U.S.-based International Rivers Network, describes the state of a river being "destroyed" by regional integration.

He argues that the development of the river’s resources has been pushed as business opportunities for export-import banks and developers, amid a lack of international environment standards, effective consultation among states and communities affected by dam projects and the backdrop of large dam-building as a sunset industry in the west.

Analysts also ask whether the regional integration that has happened so far is more market integration than anything else.

It is not always easy to conceive of the Mekong region, made up diverse ethnicities, cultures and political ideologies, as one economic grouping. It has Thailand with a per capita GDP of more than 2,500 US dollars and Cambodia with 354 dollars. It is home to the stronger economies of China, Vietnam and Thailand as well as to smaller ones like Cambodia, Laos and Burma, raising the issue of which can gain the most in an unequal playing field.

Cambodia, Laos and Burma are rich in natural resources, including hydropower, that bigger economies would like to have access to. Those countries with resources to invest elsewhere can gain by the use of cheap labour across the border, or by investing in extractive industries in economies like Laos that need foreign exchange -- such as in huge agro-forestry concessions that have been given out.

The social costs often have to do with flipside of development. Open borders allow for easier commerce and mobility, but also make it easier for drugs, diseases to cross borders. Trafficking of human beings becomes easier, even though easier movement through borders is something everybody wants.

Sirivanh Khonthapane, director general of the National Economic Research Institute of Laos, saw such tradeoffs in a study of the impact of having the East-West Corridor -- one of the ADB’s major initiatives -- run through Laos, which has Least Developed Country status.

Sixty percent of respondents said that integration has had "more positive effects than negative ones". Residents reported more business opportunities at the border as more traffic passes through the country.

With travel now easier to Thailand, more people have been able to look for jobs here. Remittances from residents of Savannakhet provinces working in Thailand amounted to some 20 million dollars, or seven percent of its GDP, Sirivanh said.

But there are other costs behind these economic gains. Thirty to forty percent of border households have at least one relative in Thailand and up to 70 percent of Lao migrant workers there are women. These social trends are linked to the vulnerabilities of residents, especially women, to trafficking, abuse and HIV and AIDS after being drawn to the promise of a better life across the border.

There is a need, Sirivanh says, to look into the social and cultural effects of building transboundary roads -- and educating border communities about how to manage the risks that come with them.

Yet the East-West Corridor -- it is now possible to have breakfast in Thailand, lunch in Laos and dinner in Vietnam -- is why landlocked Laos has now become "landlinked Laos", with its bigger role in the transit of goods from north-east Thailand to Vietnam.

One could ask how much benefit Laos gets if goods pass through the roads that run through it, but do not stop there. "The environment might suffer from a great increase in the passage of lorries between Thailand and China, just as it has in Thailand and Vietnam; some in Laos have doubts about the benefits of being a regional transit platform, given the damage already caused to the forests by the improved road infrastructure," added Vattana Pholsena and Ruth Banomyong in the book ‘Laos: From Buffer State to Crossroads?’.

In a late 2007 seminar, AsDB country director for Thailand Jean-Pierre Verbiest says that the first 15 years of the GMS programme focused on physical linkages. "What has been achieved has been a lot of physical infrastructure. . . a lot of hardware," he explained.

Economic cooperation is now moving to the next stages. "When we all sat down in 1992, the only thing we could discuss was hardware," he recalled. "As we go down, you involve more and more people and it’s harder to agreement on software."

More efforts are needed from here on, he said, because "if we don’t work together, the economic forces will be so strong to move forward and there will be no controls".

"We recognise that infrastructure development comes at a cost and sometimes, significant cost," AsDB managing director general Rajat Nag has said. "The solution is not to do nothing, but find a set of choices that accentuate the positive and minimise the costs."

One question is whether a ‘kinder’ brand of development can take shape.

"There is a lot of growth, but growth has come with inequity," pointed out Rosalia Sciortino, professor at the Mahidol and Chulalongkorn universities. "So far, we have one model of development, that of market liberalisation. We can blame whatever, but we need to come up with new models of development."

Southeast Asia, and specifically the war-scarred country of Cambodia, is the focus of the next Suter Science Seminar at EMU.

Douglas Graber Neufeld, associate professor of biology at EMU, will present "Journeys through Cambodia: A Tour of Water Issues from Urban Sewers to Rural Ricefields" 4 p.m. Friday, Mar. 14, in room 104 of the Suter Science Center.

Dr. Graber Neufeld works primarily with the environmental science program at EMU with a focus on issues that relate to environmental monitoring. He and his family recently returned from a two-year term with Mennonite Central Committee in Cambodia, where he worked on environmental issues through the Royal University of Agriculture and the Royal University of Phnom Penh.

The EMU professor will present some efforts being made to improve water quality and management in Cambodia, including projects on providing remote villages with safe drinking water, preventing health problems from untreated Phnom Penh sewage and rehabilitating Pol Pot-era irrigations structures to increase agricultural production.

"Cambodia is still recovering from decades of armed conflict, resulting in one of the lewest levels of development in Southeast Asia," Graber Neufeld said. "Issues of water are related to many of the most pressing problems in the country, including agriculture and health."

Graber Neufeld has a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in environmental physiolog and worked at the University of Arizona and the University of Otago (New Zealand) before coming to EMU.

Refreshments will be served 15 minutes prior to the presentation. The program is open to everyone free of charge.

Nearly three years ago, KUOW introduced you to a Cambodian musician who lived through the horrors under the Khmer Rouge regime. Daran Kravanh survived the killing fields by playing accordion. His story and music were featured in the documentary, "Crossing East." These days, Kravanh is busy organizing from his home in Tacoma, to be the next prime minister of Cambodia. KUOW's Ruby de Luna has this update.

DARAN KRAVANH NEVER PLANNED ON RUNNING FOR OFFICE. HE'S A MUSICIAN. BY DAY HE WORKS AS A STATE SOCIAL WORKER. BUT THE THOUGHT OF JUMPING INTO POLITICS CHANGED WHEN KRAVANH RETURNED TO CAMBODIA IN 1997. HE HAD BEEN AWAY FOR NEARLY A DECADE. IT WAS A BITTERSWEET TRIP. HE SAW A LOT OF OLD FRIENDS, FELLOW SURVIVORS...

KRAVANH: "This picture I went to the place where the Khmer Rouge killed me. This person, he survived too. I said, wow! you survived—me too!"

KRAVANH SAYS WHAT HE SAW IN CAMBODIA MADE HIM SAD. THERE WERE NO JOBS. EVERYWHERE HE WENT HE SAW POVERTY. IN HIS HOMETOWN OF PURSAT, THE RICH WILDLIFE THAT HE REMEMBERED FROM HIS YOUTH WAS GONE.

KRAVANH: "I didn't see even one monkey, one bird, one deer, everything like empty. That surprised me; I feel disappointed and start angry. I said this country not supposed to be like that."

MEMORIES OF THAT TRIP STAYED WITH HIM. LAST FALL KRAVANH LAUNCHED HIS CAMPAIGN. HE FORMED THE KHMER ANTI-POVERTY PARTY. KRAVANH SAYS ELECTION LAWS THERE DON'T ALLOW CAMPAIGNING UNTIL ONE MONTH BEFORE ELECTION DAY. UNTIL THEN, KRAVANH SAYS HE DOES ALL HIS CAMPAIGN–RELATED BUSINESS BY PHONE—JUST ASK HIM ABOUT HIS PHONE BILL.

AND IT'S NOT JUST HIS PHONE BILL. HE'S RACKED UP MORE THAN 40 THOUSAND DOLLARS IN CREDIT CARD DEBT. OBSERVERS SAY KRAVANH, OR ANY CANDIDATE OUTSIDE OF THE RULING CAMBODIAN PEOPLE'S PARTY, HAS A LONG SHOT OF WINNING.

STEINEMANN: "I think there are real concerns about the dominance of the ruling party, CPP."

NAMJI STEINEMANN IS WITH THE EAST WEST CENTER IN HAWAII. SHE SAYS AFTER DECADES OF CIVIL UNREST, CAMBODIA HAS REACHED SOME STABILITY. THE CURRENT PRIME MINISTER, HUN SEN, HAS BEEN IN POWER SINCE 1985. BUT THE COUNTRY IS STILL TRYING TO FIND ITS POLITICAL FOOTING.

STENEMANN: "The concerns range from unequal access to the media by all political parties since the CPP the ruling party, really controls the airwaves. I think there's also non–transparency of campaign finance issues…the ruling party controls much of the resources."

ANOTHER CHALLENGE IS VOTER APATHY. STEINEMANN SAYS THERE'S A SENSE OF RESIGNATION THAT THE SYSTEM ISN'T GOING TO CHANGE. AND CAMBODIANS GENERALLY ARE RELUCTANT TO TALK ABOUT THEIR POLITICAL VIEWS OPENLY—A LEGACY OF THE KHMER ROUGE PERIOD. THAT DOESN'T DISCOURAGE DARAN KRAVANH. HE ACKNOWLEDGES THAT HE'S SHOOTING FOR THE MOON, BUT HE SAYS THE SKEPTICISM ONLY FUELS HIS DETERMINATION.

KRAVANH: "You not just sit and want to change. No way. You have to take action and motivate yourself and go for it and do it. If you don't do it, you have nothing."

THESE DAYS KRAVANH SPENDS HIS TIME TRYING TO SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT HIS PARTY, AND RAISING MONEY. BEING NEW TO POLITICS, HE'S CALLED ON CONGRESSMAN NORM DICKS' OFFICE FOR ADVICE. KRAVANH'S WIFE BREE, SAYS THEIR LIFE TOGETHER HASN'T BEEN THE SAME SINCE HE DECIDED TO RUN FOR OFFICE. HIS TIME HAS BEEN SO CONSUMED.

BREE KRAVANH: "It feels a little bit like sacrifice in that my own needs have become secondary. And to see my husband not even be able to eat dinner without talking on the phone at the same time, I don't even remember the last time we sat down for dinner without him spending time on the phone, but to see the joy that he has when he's with people, encouraging people, it's really worth that sacrifice."

THE KRAVANHS PLAN TO RETURN TO CAMBODIA IN APRIL FOR THE NATIONAL CONVENTION LEADING UP TO THE ELECTION IN JULY. I'M RUBY DE LUNA, KUOW NEWS.

PHNOM PENH, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia is seeking ways to include the illicit trade in oil from the rare M'reah Prov tree into its anti-drug legislation, local media reported Thursday.

"Introducing legislation is crucial to stopping all forms of trade in M'reah Prov oil and would enable us to impose heavy punishments on traffickers," Lou Ramin, general secretary of the National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD), was quoted by the Mekong Times as saying.

He said that Vietnam has reported many hundreds of tons of the oil being smuggled into its country from 2003 to 2006, while Thailand reported that it seized 50 tons of M'reah Prov oil smuggled from Cambodia in 2007.

The Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture's forestry administration said that the country's M'reah Prov trees are mostly found in the provinces of Pursat, Battambang and Koh Kong.

Wong Hoy Yuen, a project coordinator from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, said that M'reah Prov oil is up to 90 percent rich in Safrole oil, which is used as the main precursor in the clandestine manufacture of MDMA, a drug popularly known as "ecstasy".

TOKYO, March 5 (Kyodo) - Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba told his Cambodian counterpart Tea Banh during their meeting on Wednesday that Japan is ready to help the Cambodian military in its involvement in U.N. peacekeeping operations, Japanese officials said.

"If there is anything Japan can do to support it, we are willing to do so," Ishiba was quoted as telling Cambodia's national defense minister, who doubles as deputy prime minister. But he did not elaborate on what kind of assistance he meant.

Tea Banh thanked Japan for sending Self-Defense Forces troops to the U.N. peacekeeping operation in Cambodia in 1992 and said his country has been sending mine removal experts to Sudan since two years ago as part of a U.N.-led peacekeeping operation, the officials said.

Noting that Cambodia was the first country to which Japan sent troops as part of a U.N. operation, Ishiba praised Cambodia for evolving into a country that now dispatches its own troops for such operations to another country, they said.

It is the first time Japan and Cambodia have held ministerial defense talks.

“Phnom Penh: Mr. Som Sokyee, the Deputy President of the National Sports Training Center, said that his center was seeking to increase the rations and the pocket money for national sportsmen and sportswomen.

“However, some athletes would prefer to eliminate spending of money for collective meals and for accommodation, but to give the money for meals and for accommodation directly to the sportsmen and sportswomen so that they can manage these by themselves.

“Mr. Som Sokyee disagreed with this request for money to help solve their daily living expenses. The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports had created the National Sports Training Center with the aim at giving sportspeople enough energy to receive training to enhance their sporting skills.

“He added that the rations for each sportsperson is Riel 15,000 per day [approx. US$3.75], and the pocket money for each of them is Riel 120,000 per month [US$30]. This year, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports is negotiating with several ministries to increase the ration from Riel 15,000 to Riel 25,000 [US$6.25], and the pocket money from Riel 120,000 to Riel 150,000 [US$37.50].

“Mr. Hem Thon, the Secretary General of the Khmer Swimming Sport Federation, mentioned also that with strong sportspeople, technical skills and mental skills go together. He added that nowadays, mental stress is a serious problem, because during the season of selecting sportspeople, much money is spent on gasoline to ride motorbikes to get the meals. If there would be an accident riding a motorbike, who will be responsible?

“Mr. Hem Thon expressed his intention to ask the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports to pay the rations for sportspeople directly to them, so that they manage them themselves.

“Mr. Bun Sok, a Secretary of State at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, explained that sportspeople need sufficient calories to train and to improve their sporting skills. Therefore they must get appropriate food, ensuring that they have enough energy for the training. He added, “If we pay the rations to them to manage them by themselves, the money might be spent not only for themselves, but also for their families. Therefore they might not have sufficient food to gain enough strength in order to engage in the training.

“At present, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and the National Sports Training Center prepare appropriate meals for selected national sportspeople for nine months each year.

“Mr. Thong Khun, the President of the Cambodian Olympic Committee, considers the action by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports to be reasonable.

“It should be noted that this year, the National Sports Training Center will select national sportspeople for 20 sports events, including 203 sportsmen and 63 sportswomen. They will be trained by 51 coaches and will be under the supervision of 23 trainers.”

Although no new infected cases have been reported, Cambodia is taking measures to prevent avian influenza from reoccurring, a Cambodian health official said.

Cambodia Health Ministry’s Breeding and Veterinary Department Director Kao Phal told a training course for provincial veterinary workers on March 4 that much is being done to prevent bird flu outbreaks.

The department has sent 14,000 workers to villages nationwide to conduct regular examinations on domestic poultry for early disease detection, the Director said.

In addition, the department has accelerated injections for domestic poultry and is closely monitoring poultry trade in border areas.

Since the first avian influenza outbreak reported in Cambodia in 2004, the disease has killed four people from Kampot, Kompong Cham, Prey Veng and Kompong Speu provinces.

VNA got its numbers wrong in that last paragraph. According to WHO, 7 Cambodians have contracted H5N1 since 2005, and all 7 have died.

Experts at a conference here yesterday emphasised on adequate veterinary service with appropriate technology and human resources in the South Asian countries to reduce the threat of H5N1 (Avian Influenza) infection in poultry and humans and secure national, regional and global trade in poultry and poultry products.

They also stressed on clear understanding the risk factors of bird flu, finding out the sources of outbreak, proper assessment of vaccination and collecting, analysing and disseminating information at regional and global levels to check spread of the disease.

They were addressing different sessions on the second day at the 6th Annual Scientific Conference jointly organised by Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (CVASU) and One World, One Health -- Bangladesh Initiative, a non-government organisation.

Joe Brownlie of Royal Veterinary College of United Kingdom (UK) presented the keynote paper on 'Identification, Detection and Monitoring of Infectious Disease Agents' at the first session.

Former Director General of Livestock Services Dr Nazir Ahmed and Professor Dr Muzahed Uddin Ahmed of Bangladesh Agricultural University were the chairman and co-chairman at the first session.

“H5N1 virus was first found in a farmed goose at Guangdong in China in 1996 while Korea declared the virus in poultry on December 19 in 2003, considered as first pan Asian H5N1 strain and in the next years it was detected in different countries like Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Japan, Hongkong, Thailand, Indonesia, Mongolia, Laos and Malaysia,” Dr Dewan Sribartie said while presenting his slide show.

Dr Sribartie said during 2003 and 2004 the outbreak was limited to 10 countries of Asia and Far East, it appeared in 10 new countries in South Asia and Middle East in 2006 while it emerged in three new countries in 2007.

They urged focusing on different risk factors in global and national spread of bird flu including weak veterinary service, high density of poultry, internal movement of poultry through live bird markets and commercial farms and illegal movement across districts and international borders.

They also stressed on establishing a molecular epidemiological laboratory in Chittagong region to ensure proper and easy detection of the virus.

Prof Paritosh Kumar Biswas of CVASU, Jens Peterson Christian of University of Copenhagen, Md Alimul Islam and Dr Shahidur Rahman of Department of Microbiology and Hygiene of Bangladesh Agriculture University and Mahmudur Rahman of the Institute of Epidemiological Disease Control and Research, presented papers on different aspects and impacts of Avian Influenza.

It’s not too late. If you are a senior, you can fulfill your dream and have a huge impact on the mission field.

by Marie Ens

Sarah, your dream will be fulfilled. You will have a baby!" The Lord’s message to Sarah was amazing. It should have filled her heart with raise and adoration but instead she laughed. “I am too old!” she exclaimed derisively. How about you? Do you think you are too old to have your “baby”?

Come in your imagination to Cambodia where “the Sarah’s” are not laughing but living their dreams.

Meet: Linda who at 70 is executive director of Prison Fellowship; Lorraine who at 68 runs a drop=in centre for old people in Phnom Penh; Marion who at 67 heads up a fruit processing plant that hires handicapped land mine victims so they can be gainfully employed, and pastor Cloud who at 72 was the pastor of the International Christian Assembly uintil failing health stopped him.

Then there’s Jim and Agnes aged 68 and 70 who continue on with church planting ministries and encouraging local Cambodian pastors; Frank, who at an age when most people are retired, manages a catering service and restaurant for a Christian NGO; Joyce who at 76 continues to teach; Ruth who, instead of retiring, runs an orphanage with 40 children, including several babies to whom she is giving hands-on care and Lesley who commutes back and forth from Australia to Cambodia where she is involved with an orphanage,, Sunshine House. Peter and Kathy as part of that same orphanage manage House of Progress where older kids from Sunshine House live and get training and Father Jim, a spiritual father to many, is in charge of the NGO Maryknoll. Most of these people began their missionary service when they were at least 60 years old.

Come see the beautiful orphanage run by a Catholic couple, John and Kathy, who – spurning the idea of retiring – are choosing instead to stay in Cambodia to supervise the care of 200 AIDS-positive orphans. They plan to live here with the kids until they die.

And come to Place of Rescue where 130 children call me Gramma, young women with AIDS smile at me gratefully for their care, and 11 elderly grannies praise God every day because they are lovingly cared for in their golden years. Like my Catholic friends, I too hope to be here for a good while yet.

Perhaps the dream of going to a foreign field in your golden years is a dream that is too big. Maybe teaching English short-term or offering some other support to missionaries is a better fit for you. That’s what Sue and Stew do, coming for months at a time to help local missionaries.

Look into your heart. Is there an unfulfilled dream there? Perhaps it is a dream that your loving heavenly Father put there when He created you. He is the dream giver and He is the one who makes our dreams come true and causes us to laugh with pleasure instead of unbelief – no matter how old we are.

Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.

Cologne. On the occasion of the International Women's Day on 8 March 2008, Malteser International calls for a better integration of women in the development of social structures worldwide. Women have special responsibilities for themselves and their families, take care of the health and the education of their children, look after hygiene and nutrition. Nevertheless, they are still disadvantaged in many countries.

That is why Malteser International engages for women worldwide. The humanitarian relief service organises educational trainings for women and enables them with income generating measures to earn money for themselves and their families. Staff members of Malteser Interna-tional can see the positive effects of this support for example in Cambodia. Here, they train midwives and traditional birth attendants; during health education outreach activities for pregnant women and women of reproductive age, they inform them about nutrition, hygiene and other important subjects. Furthermore, the organisation supports health centres in very remote areas where the women can give birth with professional assistance, which clearly reduces the mother and the child mortality rates. "Women transfer their knowledge about health and hygiene to their whole family. That is why they are so important: They do not only help themselves, but they help the whole community," Sandra Harlass, programme coordinator of Malteser International and consultant for the provincial health authority in Cambodia, explains. d consultant for the provincial health authority in Cambodia, explains.

Malteser International has been working in Cambodia, a country still marked by almost 30 years of civil war and genocide, since 1993. While in the beginning, the organisation supported refugees, today it is working for the rehabilitation of the health system in remote regions. In addition to the above mentioned mother-child health programme, Malteser International, with financial support of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development Germany, is also building up a community-based health insurance system in Cambodia.

Malteser International asks for donations for its projects in Cambodia:

Phnom Penh - A pair of pythons have been married in Cambodia after the happy couple went on a hunger strike until they were delivered from living in sin, police and local media said on Wednesday.

Python pair Increasing Fortune Friday, so named because he slithered into Secretary of State for the Defence Ministry Neang Phat's villa on a Friday in January, and his mate, Lucky Saturday, who joined him a day later, have been joined in holy matrimony, Kien Svay police chief Pha Samet said by telephone.

"I have no details because I was too busy to join the reception, but I can confirm they got married yesterday," said the police chief. A guest estimated the happy couple to each be about 2-metres long.

The secretary was perplexed about why the snakes refused to eat since they arrived at his home, but then spirits appeared to him in a dream and advised that the serpentine lovers wished to comply with Cambodia's controversial 2006 monogamy law, according to Rasmei Kampuchea newspaper.

The law outlaws adultery and extra-marital relationships.

"The process of the wedding ran exactly as the wedding of a human couple," the paper quoted Phat as saying - except, perhaps, for the reception buffet of live chickens.

After the ceremony, which took place about 12km outside the capital, the pythons almost immediately consented to eat, the paper reported.

Phat said he did not know why the snakes had decided to make his home their home, but it was not the first time he had been invaded by animals and he took all visitations as signs of luck and prosperity.

"Previously the house was invaded by bees. Animals become gentle when they enter my home," the paper quoted him as saying.

After allowing hope to rise in recent times, wildlife experts are once again fearing for the survival of the Mekong dolphin after a severe decline in birth rates.

The Irrawaddy dolphin is one of the world’s most endangered species, with fewer than 170 individuals left in the Mekong and less than 1000 worldwide. The species is known for its rounded, smiling face . The entire Mekong Irrawaddy dolphin population is thought to exist in just a small section of the river in Cambodia and southern Laos.

Conservationists completed an annual survey of the dolphins in November and were dismayed to find only three baby animals, one of them dead. This was a 66% drop from the six healthy baby dolphins the survey found in the 2006 survey. In even more bad news, the average weight of the dolphin’s babies has dropped more than 3 kg in the last 20 years.

Conservation groups had hoped the animals would bounce back from the brink of extinction after a 2006 ban on net fishing in Cambodia’s eastern provinces. While there are about 60 more dolphins in the Mekong than before the ban, the birth rates vital to the survival of the species have not improved.

Touch Seang Tana, chairman of the Commission for Mekong Dolphins Conservation, said: “A group of 10 full-grown dolphins living in the upper Mekong River had no babies at all this year.”

He blamed the endangered species’ recent decline on a lack of fish and a rise in water temperature, either or both of which could affect the animals’ reproductive abilities.

A World Wildlife Fund spokesman agreed, saying that the rise in water temperature allegedly linked to global warming effects could be a threat. They also admitted that there are a variety of factors to consider whenever a species is in decline, such as pollution.

Teak Seng of the WWF said: “Global warming may be a possible indirect threat to the dolphin population, particularly if their fitness is reduced. Dolphins are very sensitive to changes in their environment such as water temperature and quality. Other factors may be more influential such as diseases and water pollution.”

A national anti-trafficking unit will begin a series of local discussions in five provinces to find methods of specifically targeting the crime in each area, officials announced Wednesday.

The "citizen dialogues," which are to be undertaken by the National Task Force Against Trafficking in Persons, are aimed at promoting local action, officials said Wednesday.

US Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli said Cambodia had made progress to curb the crime in recent years, but that the government must remove judicial officials who accept bribes to release suspects ahead of trial or find them innocent.

On the eve of Wednesday's announcement, national police arrested an American man under suspicion of having sex with underage girls, underscoring one element of the trafficking problem in Cambodia.

A Cambodian family passes by bottles of gasoline at a road-side store on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Tuesday, March 4, 2008. The current price of gasoline in Cambodia stands now at 4,600 riel (US$1.16; euro.76) a liter.(AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer Original report from Phnom Penh05 March 2008

"This morning, doctors brought him to [Calmette] Hospital at 8:30 am to follow the check-up of his heart condition, following the request of foreign doctors and Cambodian doctors working for the [tribunal]," tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said. "The general health condition of Nuon Chea is normal."

Lawyer Son Arun said Wednesday that a French doctor who checked on Nuon Chea three months ago was back in Cambodia and requested to check Nuon Chea's condition. He said he regretted that the tribunal had not told him of the transfer to the hospital as it took place.

Nuon Chea, 82, was arrested in November, and has said in the past he has high blood pressure and a heart condition. He has been to the hospital the most times of any arrested leader except former foreign minister Ieng Sary.

Election monitors have received less donor funding for their activities ahead of July's polls than in elections past, officials said this week.

The independent monitors collect evidence of electoral fraud, reduce tension when there is conflict and are an important part of the voting process, said Koul Panha, director of the Committee for Free and Fair Elections.

But these groups are under-funded ahead of this year's national election, he said.

Puthea Hang, director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia, said donors were not paying as much attention to this election as they have others.